


he who bleeds upon the land

by theholyjuggernaut



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Character Study, Depression, Drabble, Drowning, Gen, Loneliness, Sad, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23690401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theholyjuggernaut/pseuds/theholyjuggernaut
Summary: He carries too many weapons, people tell him. The war is over. There are no more monsters to fight.They’re not for monsters, he doesn’t say, not anymore.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 64





	he who bleeds upon the land

**Author's Note:**

> Felt sad, so here's this.

Hyrule is vast.

Link has unearthed every shrine, illuminated every tower, and scoured every nook and cranny of the rich Earth. Beneath each dauntless step he takes, the ground breathes as if it has lungs of its own; it breathes out life. Sometimes, it’s hard for the hero to understand how the very thing that breathes life is slowly sucking his own away. 

He carries too many weapons, people tell him. The war is over. There are no more monsters to fight. 

_They’re not for monsters_ , he doesn’t say, _not anymore._

Hyrule is vast, there aren’t any monsters, and Link still keeps an arsenal of weapons at his house in Hateno Village. Sometimes he checks by just to make sure they’re all still there – for reassurance. Link doesn’t linger, though. He never lingers _anywhere_ for too long. Always moving nowadays, like a vagabond.

The stables are nice when it’s not raining, but even if it is, Link swings by to see his horses. 

He catches glimpses of people he knows – people who don’t know him. Beedle greets him on the road, Pikango is always willing to share a story or two of his travels, and the stable owners remember his name. They’re little victories Link bottles up and throws into his pack for safekeeping. He’s still slightly worried he’s going to forget. Again.

But would it be so bad? When he woke up from his one hundred year long slumber, he could feel no fear, there was no sadness. Following the Shrine of Resurrection – that was where it all began. His long, arduous quest to shake hands with Grief and kiss the feet of Pain. 

The proof of Link’s suffering is carved deep in his skin, and even a century of healing could not repair it. Scars curve around his body like a map with no labels – only the hero knows from whom he received them. Every creature responsible for the blemishes on his body is long dead, so there’s no one to ask but the hero, and Link is careful with his words. He’s careful with not using them, too.

Hyrule is vast, yet Link struggles to deem a place worthy of the word _home._

There are spots he visits often – Tarrey Town, Gerudo Square, Lurelin Village, the Zora Kingdom. They’re full of life and noise, and Link likes that sometimes. Other times, he sneaks off to some forgotten corner of the world and hides. 

He hides from the lack of a weight on his shoulders. He hides from the people who will never know it is he who destroyed Calamity Ganon. He also hides from the fact that they don’t know it is also he who failed the first time. It is he who let his friends die, their souls trapped for years inside corrupted Divine Beast prisons because he was too weak to wake up. 

It wasn’t all failure, though. 

He should visit Zelda, because unlike the others, she is alive. 

However, it’s been far too long, and with each day apart, it gets harder to return to Hyrule Castle. Link finds himself thinking about all the people he should check in on. Sidon, Riju, Impa. They are unmoving. 

Link always knows where to find them, which makes things easier. But really, no one knows where to find _him_ if they are in need of his presence, because Hyrule is vast, and no person knows the land better than the one whose blood stains it. 

Today, he treks north of the frozen Hebra Tundra to a place called Goflam’s Secret Hot Spring, where mountain walls encase the area, flurried with endless snowfall. 

Link paraglides down to the steaming water pools and removes his boots. The journey is always so cold, but this time, there are no monsters to slay or dragons to free. It’s just him, sinking deeper and deeper into the remedying heat. 

It’s so silent now, other than gentle, swirling zephyrs above him. Link closes his eyes and lets his head dip underwater. _I could stay like this forever,_ he thinks to himself. _No one has to know._

Whenever people don’t see him, they always assume he’s away on a mission. Perhaps it’s the way he carries himself – like a knight, like a warrior; with strength and stride, on his way to vanquish evil. He just feels like a shell now. 

A shell without a family. 

He had a grandfather and little sister that escape his memory; he only knows this because Zelda has mentioned them before. His father was a knight, and his mother. . . well, he’s not so sure. She must have died alongside everyone else during the Great Calamity. It’s a sobering reality, and even with warmth embracing his unclad body – riddled with scars and cuts and fading bruises – he can’t seem to feel anything less than lonely.

When Link can’t hold his breath anymore, he gasps to the surface and rests his head on the cool ground. He doesn’t get out, just floats on the water as tears prickle his eyes. The air numbs the flushed skin of his face, and with that, he lets himself cry. 

It’s not like how Zelda wept during their rainy escape through the forest. It’s as silent and enduring as Link always is, and he lets his eyelids close gently without so much as a sniffle. His arms and legs stay unmoving as he lets his head submerge once again. It’s even more silent underwater, there’s just the monotonous rumble of moving currents. 

He imagines himself sinking deeper and deeper until he reaches the bottom of the Earth. After he breaches that, he continues his fall downward until his body simply ceases to exist. It is stolen away by time, roots curling around his legs and moss growing on his bones. Centuries pass, and Link becomes like the ruins he is so familiar with. Ancient and forgotten.

As he drowns, Link wonders if Destiny foretold this moment.


End file.
